When I married Ryan, I found myself part of a family that loves to fellowship...which means they also love to cook and to eat! It's a perfect match...since I love all those things too!
As the first round of post-wedding holidays arrived, I patiently awaited my first family meal assignment...and it turned out to be...a cheeseball!
I was excited about that, because I love making a dried beef cheeseball...it is actually one of the first recipes my mom gave me when I moved out on my own after college. I've been making them ever since!
There are several versions of this general recipe floating around...so I'm adding mine to the mix. If you're headed to a New Year's Eve party this week and need something to take with you, try this one!
Dried Beef Cheeseball
* 2 eight-ounce packages of cream cheese
* 2 two-ounce packages of thinly sliced beef
* 1 bunch of green onions
* 1/2 teaspoon of liquid smoke
* 1 teaspoon of garlic or garlic seasoning blend
Soften the cream cheese to room temperature. Chop the slices of beef and the green onions into small pieces. Combine all five ingredients until well blended. Roll into a ball and serve with crackers.
A Few Tips:
* I use 1/3 less fat cream cheese...always looking for ways to save fat grams and calories!
* If you forget to get the cream cheese out in enough time to soften it to room temperature, you can leave it in the foil wrapping and place it in a bowl of warm water until it softens.
* You can use a stand mixer to mix the ingredients, but in the end, you'll find that it will mix better by hand - just to make sure everything is evenly distributed.
* I use the Buddig brand 2 ounce packages of regular beef. These are found in the refrigerated section with the lunch meat. The beef you can buy in a jar on a regular shelf is incredibly salty, so I prefer to not use it.
* If you have a food processor, you can chop the meat in there. It will speed up the process and give you finely chopped pieces!
* We have fallen in love with the Garlic and Wine seasoning from The Melting Pot. We use it on EVERYTHING, and I love it in the cheeseball.
* If you want, you can roll the cheeseball in nuts, more onions and beef, shredded cheese, or anything else you like. You can also form it in different shapes for different occasions. I've made a carrot-shaped one for Easter and a tie-shaped one for Father's Day. My Mom made a snowman cheeseball for Christmas. Fun food for everyone!
7 comments:
First of all, Bekah, thank you for giving us all a glimpse into your fun Holiday Season; so many cool plans and ideas! I learn a lot of good stuff from you! :o) So funny: My husband and I were just talking about going to the store to get the ingredients for the "Dried Beef Cheeseball" that I have made for years. I am taking it to a party tomorrow night. My recipe is a bit different than yours as it uses dried onion soup mix (instead of the green onions) and Worcestershire sauce instead of the garlic & liquid smoke. Now I need to try YOUR recipe. Thanks for sharing it and may God Bless your New Year with much peace and happiness. Keep up the wonderful "job" of blogging!
Shari - well you are so welcome! My original recipe called for W sauce (which is what I call it because I cannot pronounce Worcestershire - and it's ridiculously long to type) so I decided to sub in the liquid smoke. And Ryan and I put that garlic/wine seasoning on every single thing we make (except dessert) so it seemed a natural fit. We took it to his family's Christmas on Saturday and the only thing we brought home was a washed dish and spare crackers.
If I had been there, there would not have been spare crackers!
LOL!! well you should have stayed! You would have loved sitting in the warm, toasty cabin! Eating crackers.
Hi Bekah! I used to use the packets of dried beef in the refrigerated section, but the stores stopped carrying it. Now I buy the jars, but the directions on the jar say to RINSE the meat and pat dry! Who knew? I almost forgot that step the other day, and it would have been incredibly salty!
I love cheeseballs. If I ever decide to stop being vegetarian this one will definitely be on my list. It sounds really good!
And I'm guessing veggie beef would just not substitute well in this one :) Ha ha ha!!!
Tracy - I did not know that about the rinse and dry! I used it once to make gravy (for work, no less) and it was like licking a salt block!!! Good tip!!! Thanks for telling me!
Natasha - I didn't even know they make veggie beef! I have so much to learn. :)
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